David Grusky assumes that income inequality is necessarily a bad thing, and lays it at the feet of “market failure.” I’ll not address the overall contention because it is not my area of expertise, but in education, while Grusky is correct in perceiving many problems, they cannot be ascribed to markets. They are government failures.
On schooling, Grusky fingers two “bottlenecks” as primary inequality producers: first, artificially low supply of disadvantaged college students due to poor academic preparation and, second, constrained demand for students by slot-rationing elite universities.
Few would likely argue with these major concerns. The poor generally aren’t well prepared for college work, and elite schools do not expand their available seats to meet demand. To blame market failure for these realities, however, is impossible because American education is dominated by government.
The vast majority—86 percent—of students in elementary and secondary education attend public schools, while 11 percent go to private institutions, and 3 percent are homeschooled. This is largely a result of the requirement that all taxpayers pay for government education and expend additional funds if they want private options. Moreover, in education profit-seeking—a staple of free markets that drives investment and expansion—is highly discouraged because tax benefits accrue only to nonprofit schools.
Problems in education can’t be blamed on market failure, because American education is dominated by government.
No comments:
Post a Comment